A variable group of cream to dark red fine-textured fabrics with smooth fracture. Highly polished self-coloured surfaces. Some have dark grey, dark chocolate brown or a lighter smoky grey haze.

Forms

Plates, cups and beakers.

Chronology

Production commences by c. 20-10 BC. The proportion of terra rubra in the Gallo-Belgic assemblage drops through the Augustan-Tiberian period, being replaced by terra nigra, and the ware has disappeared by the early Flavian period. The different varieties may be dated thus:

15 BC-AD 25

15 BC-AD 15

AD 1-60

AD 1-65

Source

The principal source is the Vesle valley, near Rheims.

Distribution

North-east Gaul, between the Seine, Moselle and Rhine. In Britain, south and east of the Severn-Humber line, with concentrations in central southern England, and Herts/Essex region.

Aliases

References

Hawkes and Hull 1947. Hawkes, C. F. C. and Hull, M. R., Camulodunum. First report on the excavations at Colchester, 1930-39, Reports of the Research Committee of the Society of Antiquaries of London, 14, Society of Antiquaries, Oxford, (1947).